I just have one question: looking at this, it made me wonder if the game is mostly about dungeon crawling or if you guys are writing a complex plot & world lore, etc. I will probably love this game either way, but I’m curious.

This game will be mainly about dungeon exploration and the plot of the game will, naturally, center around it. That being said, we hope that the lore could reflect some of the outside world too even if you are confined within the dusty and damp caverns.

If only games like these were more liked by the “mainstream” public, so we’d have more to chose from. Legend of Grimrock looks amazing and I am quite sure it plays the same way, so I hope it does well and gets picked up by many who also finds it amazing and spread it, then maybe we could get a ball rolling ‘wink*.

Keep up the good work and mind you, guys, I will buy the shit out of this game!

This is a truly fantastic piece! The only thing that’s a bit of a shame is the flock of birds at the bottom which is obviously copy/pasted twice. It takes just a little bit away from an otherwise brilliant work… I’m a fan!

Awesome wallpaper, thanks!
Any new updates/ gameplay videos to make us drooling/ explanations of additions of gameplay mechanics?
Have you decided to implement any NPCs we could meet/get quests from/kill if we so desire in the dungeons? I recall you saying you would consider that.

We are sorry about the infrequent blog posts lately. We have been extremely busy with getting the game to alpha stage. Not quite there yet but getting closer every day… (by alpha I mean the stage where we can play the game through from start to finish).

We have been thinking about NPCs but they kind of break the atmosphere. The dungeons built in Grirmrock are truly ancient and filled with strange puzzles and traps, so encountering NPCs there doesn’t feel right. So at the moment it seems unlikely that there will be NPC interaction in the game.

Ah, I see. That indeed makes sense, but how about an undeadish creature promising great rewards in exchange for performing rituals/gathering certain items to let it free? That would be pretty awesome actually, especially if the consequence of refusing to help them could lead to said creature haunting the party later on in the game.
Or maybe you could hear an interesting story from it, which would help establishing the lore, make the player more invested in the Grimlock universe.

Just trying to help by brainstorming the opportunites, I think that little things like that would add a lot of flavour to the game and make the world. If you decide not to go that route this time, NPC interaction combined with maybe the implementation of a persuasion skill sound pretty cool for a sequel to me. 🙂

You wrote in an earlier blog post that the entrance to the spire is at the bottom.
Is this entrance visible anywhere in the two wallpapers?

What’s the party going to do when they reach the top of the spire?
I suppose they could try to hijack an airship. But why would there even be a airship near the summit, when nobody knows about the tunnels leading there?

I don’t know if your engine supports this:
In some places, the tunnels could have “windows” to the outside, as a reminder that you’re not in an underground dungeon, but inside a mountain. Maybe even ledges that you could step onto and admire the panoramic view 🙂

That would be an awesome ending. After days of wandering those dungeons, making it to level 15 and defeating the final boss the party finds there actually isn’t a way out and they starve to death. Game over. 😉

The Grimrock team should add some scenes where you step outside to make a mad dash up a steep slope, maybe even add in a yeti or two…? But still, it would be amazing to be able to check out the landscape somewhere near the end as a sort of reward.

Am I the only one who gets the “Strike the earth!” vibe from the image ? 😉
Very atmospheric, says ancient and abandoned, begs to be explored.
On the other hand, is it not exactly the inversion of the claustrophobic game theme ?

There are no exteriors in LoG. Player’s goal in the game is to find a way out from a vast dungeon built into Mount Grimrock where the characters are trapped. This game concept basically rules out exteriors. Also vast wilderness areas would require free movement to work well and this in turn has even bigger gameplay implications. I’d rather choose a Oblivion/Skyrim style representation for a game with big wilderness areas rather than a tile-based model which is better suited for dungeons.

That said, there could be more organic wilderness looking sections in DLCs / updates (like an underground forest type of thing) but it’s too early to say for sure.

btw DM did not have any exteriors, maybe you are talking about DM 2?

The answer to your second question is a big secret which I don’t want to reveal yet 🙂

take your time to make a good game a very large dungeon with many different objects and treasures and please let a monster all in armor with a large shield in one hand and a big sword or axe in the other PLEASE petri

This game must be a sequel! otherwise it wont be long enough. Every update should add new levels and connect them with previous ones, that way the game will expand to enormous game-play time and at the end its gonna be one huge game. We know this is a new studio, everything must be done fast and send to market, that sacrifice some details and game-play, which we should get If the game will be successful.

so when can we buy this? i wanna buy it now. i dont care that its in alpha. you were recommended by notch, and that means you can do no wrong. finsh to alpha, then offer an alpha buy option.
just my 2 cents. notch did it. he’s rolling in the dough now 😛
think about it.